Nepal, like Japan, is no stranger to earthquakes. Two years ago, a magnitude-7.8 earthquake on April 25 and a major aftershock on May 12 took nearly 9,000 lives and damaged hundreds of thousands of homes.
While rich in terms of culture and heritage, Nepal even before the earthquake was one of the world's poorest nations. The nation of 29 million is second only to Afghanistan when it comes to a ranking of Asia's poorest countries. More than 40 percent of the population live on less than $2 a day, and 70 percent are employed in the agricultural sector, according to the World Bank.
Now two years after the 2015 earthquake, the results of reconstruction efforts have been decidedly mixed, with tens of thousands of homes, buildings and heritage sites still needing to be rebuilt. This, despite pledges of more than $4 billion in aid to help this poor, landlocked nation.